Detroit firefighter fired for bringing watermelon to station

originally posted by: ErrorErrorError
I totally understand why the employer didn't want to hire this guy.
I mean, it's allright to make racial jokes and pander to stereotypes when you know the people you are joking with.
But doing so on your first day of work to people you don't know will just bring you in trouble.
You don't run around and tell "your mom is so fat" jokes to random people you don't know either.
Btw I'm sure this guy is not a racist, but not so bright either

So...everybody in the country is automatically supposed to know that watermelon is some kind of...I dunno...racist signal or something? I sure had no
idea, until I read this, that watermelon is somehow "offensive." And I still don't understand why.

Google "watermelon black people" and look at the images. Pretty common knowledge.
Still they shouldn't have fired him. He should sue em. He'll win.

Ok thanks....
Did as you said, looked it up in images........all I found was a bunch of people eating watermelon, most looked like Obama, some guys with melons on
their heads and some old adverts about Sambo, and white girls eating Old Dick chocolate and new Gay clothes.
Mostly about eating fried chicken too.

Sorry I still don't get it.....what did I miss?

Btw, I like fried chicken and watermelon as well, does that mean I cant be a fire fighter in the US?

You know, as a kid in the 60s, we use to buy licorice squares, for treats.....they were called "Nigger Boys".

Never once thought of a "'n-word' boy" as anymore than a licorice square, until at least the late 70s.

Did you see the caricature? Like the big red lips and white teeth for example? I suppose it's like calling white people crackers and rednecks.
Anyway what I think what make it go over the top was the pink ribbon on top of it.
Anyway it's 2017. People need to get over it. If there's overt racism, we will know it. I think this guy didn't know really.

ungrateful assholes is what these guys are to fire someone over petty feelings and assumptions, the real racists here are these firefighters and
anyone else to presume that this gift was racist just because this guy is white.

should have known better my ass, why should i or anyone "know better" just because we are white? if i was this guy i'd mail every possible offensive
to blacks item i could find to all of these guys just out of spite for such a slight on my character, racist assholes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't watermelons one of THE gifts to give in Asian culture, as in being very respectfull towards the person you're
giving it to.
I remember watermelons selling for as high as 20k - 30k $ in Japan, the square kind.

If this guy was Asian he probably thought it was the respectfull thing to do.

"Traditionally, the pomelo, mandarins or what we call the tangerine or clementine, as well as limes, bananas, pineapple, and water or winter melon are
seen as temple offerings."
"Melons and the pomelo are symbolic of family unity, they hold out the wish that the family will, like the moon, stay round, large, whole, and also
united. Families love to share them and many other fruits. That may be why they buy large fruits and share them together."

The real gag is no one is going to get all sticky and wet, and cut it up for everyone else.

This is what makes me wonder most- the most common gift is donuts because no one would actually prepare a watermelon for anyone else other than
children.

If it was a box of pre-cut watermelon, it seems like there would be no trouble in enjoying it.

But as-is, it's like handing a frozen turkey to an native american Indian and crowing "You like these right? You'll find time to prepare it."

It's also to be noted, the stereotype isn't 'black people like watermelon', it's that they're 'animal-like' and 'satisfied with as little as a
watermelon'. It's at it's height of offence as a gift, because that was the condescending nature of the stereotype in the first place; if you give a
black man a watermelon, that's 'all he really needs'.

It's also very, very old and something we need to let die ... much like the fried chicken thing because everyone and their brother eats watermelon
now.

I don't want to have to spend the rest of my life worrying about how my fried chicken or watermelon will be interpreted if someone of the wrong color
happens to be somewhere where I take them.

When incidents like this happen, they simply perpetuate things that ought to be allowed to die because no one is trying to keep those old stereotypes
alive anymore except the people with racial grievances. Sometimes, you have to let it go.

Most firehouses have kitchens in them. I don't know about you but at our preferred shopping time there are usually one or two station houses there
doing their grocery shopping as well. He may have figured it could be cut open on site ... because, you know, kitchen.

And I'm referring to it's preparation being obvious or not. Not the 'obviousness' of the gesture.

Donuts aren't 'prepared', so you don't need to guess if he will prepare them.

As for the watermelon, there is no way to prove what his intentions are sure, but my point is there is no way to prove he planned on slicing it up for
them out of goodwill.

If you cannot understand why I'm suggesting a full watermelon is a tedious gift, you wouldn't understand why having it sliced up would be better. If
you just give them a full watermelon, all you've done is delivered symbolism to them until they work it out themselves with a knife. I'm saying a
prepared watermelon would glide over the stereotype far easier. That's why it's an interesting detail, and this doesn't relate in your donut counter
example at all.

Did you see the caricature? Like the big red lips and white teeth for example? I suppose it's like calling white people crackers and rednecks.

Nothing like cracker or redneck. It seems that these racist names are OK to say about whites, in fact I can't think of a name that has the same
effect to whites. Go to race day-redneck is used all the time in fact some are proud of it. Cracker not so much.
Seems that these insults are felt differently by people with different ethnicity more than likely the different histories are at play.

And I think you are working way too hard to make the guy the bad man. You are assuming racism on his part and working overtime to find evidence that
he meant to insult all of his soon to be coworkers.

What if he figured the firehouse had a kitchen and it would be easier to prepare the melon there than to prepare it at home and bring it in a
container because there would be stuff for that on site? What if he intended to do the prep work there on site himself?

Since we aren't him, neither of us knows.

But you are assuming he intended to just dump the melon and run basically and have none himself or something and "let them deal with it" as if he
assumed they're be filling into the old stereotype. You're filling in all the blanks in the most damning way possible to make him look like Neo-Nazi
skinhead McFirefighter with no evidence beyond the watermelon.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: NotTheCIA
You are assuming racism on his part and working overtime to find evidence that he meant to insult all of his soon to be coworkers.

No, you are assuming I am assuming racism, and this itself is the overtime that the conservative narrative is constantly playing to as of late.

I am NOT assuming he is racist, I did not CALL HIM a racist, I made an interesting point about the story that you are spinning into a strawman to make
PRO-RACIST arguments in the event he actually did in on purpose, you are his sympathizer, and that is an equally theoretically deplorable position to
be supporting. I called actions for how I saw them, I did not call the action racist, I SPECIFICALLY noted getting a full watermelon as a gift is a
bummer, and a lot of work, and had the gesture been CONFIRMED to be racist, you could add this detail of zero care about the watermelon actually being
enjoyed by the fire department a potential detail of how great a 'gift' it was.

Your comment about the kitchen is pure distraction as if I'm too ignorant to consider that, I considered it before you. It's irrelevant.

Your last comment about what I assume is way off base. Read my comments and try again, I assumed nothing, and suggested nothing and will take no part
of your divisional conversation where you paint me as this 'monster liberal that thinks everyone is racist' when I didn't even claim to such a thing,
it's nearly illiteracy to suggest that. The only thing made clear by your last comment is who your batting for and how you operate. I am sorry I am
not playing your stupid game.

It is not. If you go to pick up your gift in the morning before you show up and you are thinking donuts but then you see these nice watermelons and
think that would be healthier and you always liked them better anyhow, the idea that the station house has a kitchen makes a difference.

If you know you have the means to prepare the watermelon, which to you seems a huge chore, but to me really isn't all that bad (where you and I differ
on this), then you decide to pick it up instead. Who doesn't like it?

If you're getting the gift on your way to work because that's how donuts work - they're better fresh - then you don't have time to prep it before you
get there.

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